Oxidation dihydroxylation

N-oxidation/S-oxidation Dihydroxylation Dehydrogenation or reduction Demethylation Deethylation Depropylation Oxidative deamination Oxidative dechlorination Oxidative defluorination Hydration Methyl to an acid Conjugation Glucuronidation Sulfation... 

A catalytic enantio- and diastereoselective dihydroxylation procedure without the assistance of a directing functional group (like the allylic alcohol group in the Sharpless epox-idation) has also been developed by K.B. Sharpless (E.N. Jacobsen, 1988 H.-L. Kwong, 1990 B.M. Kim, 1990 H. Waldmann, 1992). It uses osmium tetroxide as a catalytic oxidant (as little as 20 ppm to date) and two readily available cinchona alkaloid diastereomeis, namely the 4-chlorobenzoate esters or bulky aryl ethers of dihydroquinine and dihydroquinidine (cf. p. 290% as stereosteering reagents (structures of the Os complexes see R.M. Pearlstein, 1990). The transformation lacks the high asymmetric inductions of the Sharpless epoxidation, but it is broadly applicable and insensitive to air and water. Further improvements are to be expected. 

The carbon-carbon double bond of an alkene 8 can be cleaved oxidatively, by a dihydroxylation reaction-glycol cleavage sequence ... 

With this reaction, two new asymmetric centers can be generated in one step from an achiral precursor in moderate to good enantiomeric purity by using a chiral catalyst for oxidation. The Sharpless dihydroxylation has been developed from the earlier y -dihydroxylation of alkenes with osmium tetroxide, which usually led to a racemic mixture. 

The completion of the synthesis of the polyol glycoside subunit 7 requires construction of the fully substituted stereocenter at C-10 and a stereocontrolled dihydroxylation of the C3-C4 geminally-disub-stituted olefin (see Scheme 10). The action of methyllithium on Af-methoxy-Af-methylamide 50) furnishes a methyl ketone which is subsequently converted into intermediate 10 through oxidative removal of the /j-methoxybenzyl protecting group with DDQ. Intermediate 10 is produced in an overall yield of 83 % from 50) , and is a suitable substrate for an a-chelation-controlled carbonyl addition reaction.18 When intermediate 10 is exposed to three equivalents of... 

Scheme 5. Upjohn s catalytic dihydroxylation process with 0s04 and 4-methylmorpholine /V-oxide (NMO).

The next key step, the second dihydroxylation, was deferred until the lactone 82 had been formed from compound 80 (Scheme 20). This tactic would alleviate some of the steric hindrance around the C3-C4 double bond, and would create a cyclic molecule which was predicted to have a greater diastereofacial bias. The lactone can be made by first protecting the diol 80 as the acetonide 81 (88 % yield), followed by oxidative cleavage of the two PMB groups with DDQ (86% yield).43 Dihydroxylation of 82 with the standard Upjohn conditions17 furnishes, not unexpectedly, a quantitative yield of the triol 84 as a single diastereoisomer. The triol 84 is presumably fashioned from the initially formed triol 83 by a spontaneous translactonization (see Scheme 20), an event which proved to be a substantial piece of luck, as it simultaneously freed the C-8 hydroxyl from the lactone and protected the C-3 hydroxyl in the alcohol oxidation state. 

The site of dihydroxylation in heterocycles depends on the nature of the heteroaromatic system (Scheme 9.31) usually, electron-rich heterocycles like thiophene are readily biooxidized but give conformationally labile products, vhich may undergo concomitant sulfoxidation [241]. Electron deficient systems are not accepted only pyridone derivatives give corresponding cis-diols [242]. Such a differentiated behavior is also observed for benzo-fused compounds biotransformation of benzo[b] thiophene gives dihydroxylation at the heterocyclic core as major product, while quinoline and other electron-poor systems are oxidized at the homoaromatic core, predominantly [243,244]. 

On the other hand, the observed syn preference of 59a is consistent with a study of hydroboration of 59a with diborane by Schueler and Rhodes [127], who obtained a mixture of the monoalcohols (symanti = 74 26) upon oxidative work-up. A similar magnitude of. yyn-preference was found (syn anti = 73 27) in the hydroboration with a bulkier borane, 2,3-dimethyl-2-butylborane (thexyl borane) [127]. This lack of effect of the bulk of the reagent in the hydroboration of 59a is consistent with the idea that the n face of 59a is free from steric bias [127], and that the syn preference of 59a found in dihydroxylation and epoxidation is non-sterically determined [128]. 

In addition, also nonheme iron catalysts containing BPMEN 1 and TPA 2 as ligands are known to activate hydrogen peroxide for the epoxidation of olefins (Scheme 1) [20-26]. More recently, especially Que and coworkers were able to improve the catalyst productivity to nearly quantitative conversion of the alkene by using an acetonitrile/acetic acid solution [27-29]. The carboxylic acid is required to increase the efficiency of the reaction and the epoxide/diol product ratio. The competitive dihydroxylation reaction suggested the participation of different active species in these oxidations (Scheme 2). 

In 2008, Que and coworkers reported an asymmetric version of the dihydroxylation with a new type of ligands bearing bipyrrolidine as the chiral backbone [71]. The corresponding iron(II) complex showed general activity in the dihydroxylation of various olefins using H202- Satisfactory results are obtained with aliphatic as well as with aromatic olefins. For example, dihydroxylation of styrene gave styrene oxide and 1-phenylethane-1,2-diol in <1% and 65% yield, respectively (Scheme 10). 

Both the (+)- and (-)- enantiomers of limonene were transformed by larvae of the cutworm Spodop-tera litura (Miyazawa et al. 1998). For both of them the reactions involved are (a) dihydroxylation between C-8 and C-9 and (b) oxidation of the C-1 methyl group to carboxyl. These transformations were not dependent on the intestinal microflora in contrast to the transformation of a-terpinene to p-mentha-l,3-dien-7-ol and p-cymene whose formation could be attributed to the intestinal flora. 

Syn-Dihydroxylation. When the reaction was first discovered, the syn-dihydroxylation of alkenes was carried out by using a stoichiometric amount of osmium tetroxide in dry organic solvent.56 Hoffman made the observation that alkenes could react with chlorate salts as the primary oxidants together with a catalytic quantity of osmium tetroxide, yielding syn-vicinal diols (Eq. 3.11). This catalytic reaction is usually carried out in an aqueous and tetrahydrofuran solvent mixture, and silver or barium chlorate generally give better yields.57... 

A very effective way of carrying out syn-dihydroxylation of alkenes is by using an osmium tetroxide-tertiary amine N-oxide system. This dihydroxylation is usually carried out in aqueous acetone in either one-or two-phase systems, but other solvents may be required to overcome problems of substrate solubility.61... 

Mono-, di-, and trisubstituted olefins undergo osmium-catalyzed enantioselective dihydroxylation in the presence of the (R)-proline-substituted hydroquinidine 3.9 to give diols in 67-95% yields and in 78-99% ee.75 Using potassium osmate(VI) as the catalyst and potassium carbonate as the base in a tm-butanol/water mixture as the solvent, olefins are dihydroxylated stereo- and enantioselectively in the presence of 3.9 and potassium ferricyanide with sodium chlorite as the stoichiometric oxidant the yields and enantiomeric excesses of the... 

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